"I think... it was this way?" Chapo guided Roland along, one eye on her map and another on the forest around them. "Maybe I shouldn't have taken that nap... or maybe I should've waited before we tried going through here." Every tree seemed the same, and the lanterns strung up around what passed for a clear pathway were sporadic and seemed to blur together in the dead of the night. Chapo had originally been tempted to try and train Roland and possibly catch a pokemon or two, but the forest was deathly quiet save for the rustling of leaves and the whistling of the wind. Almost all of the pokemon must've been asleep, and whatever species that lived in the forest that would be awake at this hour were nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, Chapo kept an eye out in the shadows off the path, eager to see if she could find any sign of pokemon or trainers. "You'd think the forest would be more crowded than this. Maybe we're just not looking hard..." A strange sensation swept over the girl, as though something had tied a string around the back of her mind and was now gently tugging at it for attention. Almost in a daze, Chapo looked about for whatever might be causing the feeling. The trees all seemed to melt into eachother in the shadows until they were all one large, incomprehensible blur. However, Chapo found what she must've been looking for.

The figure was taller than Chapo, even when perched atop Roland's back. It was lean with slender arms and an almost spindly neck. Its features were rigid and vaguely feline, and its narrow eyes burned with a quiet anger that Chapo had never seen before. She could practically feel the anger radiating off of the creature. She could feel something else, too. She felt it off of her father every now and then, and his pokemon more often than that. But this was something different, it was more intense and raw like an uncontrollable forest fire in comparison to the light of a candle. Roland quivered like a leaf beneath Chapo, and the girl couldn't stop herself from suppressing a horrified shiver of her own. Whatever the thing was, it was most definitely not human, and it was unlike any pokemon she had ever seen or read about. The girl opened her mouth, foolishly thinking to call out to the monster, but before she could the bizarre figure disappeared in what Chapo recognized as a teleportation move.

"What was that..." Chapo kept shivering, wrapping Leavanny's silk blanket around herself. The psychic committed the mental image of the creature and the unique sense of awe and dread it radiated to memory. She may never see or feel again what she just had that night, but if she did she was going to make sure that she recognised it right away. She'd do her best to unravel this little mystery if she could, even though her own advice to Mia echoed in her head and warned that she'd probably be better off if she didn't.

Sing-a-ling-a-ling...

The girl's brow furrowed as an eerie voice echoed in the night. Was it the voice of her mystery Pokemon? She highly doubted it, but nothing's impossible. She silently strained to hear more over the rustlings of the night.

Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-doooooooo a deer. A female deer.

No, it was most definitely not the pokemon she had encountered. Nonetheless, it picqued her interest. "Roland, let's find that noise." She said, urging the Grotle off the path. The pokemon resisted at first, but eventually yielded and walked off into the night. More snippets of the voice came to the pair on the wind, eventually being mixed in with what sounded like some sort of string instrument. The sound was coming from a distant, orange glow that Chapo quickly realised must've been a camp. "I guess someone's practicing their music. C'mon, Roland. Let's go check it out."

There was a small clearing in the woods, with a small campfire lit in the middle. The warm glow of the flames illuminated a young man with short, sandy brown hair with a guitar sitting on a stump. The boy strummed at the instrument absently, appearantly trying to clear his thoughts as he played. "Yeah... yeah I think she'd like this." His strumming sped up a bit, trying to mimic some sort of ballad. "Something faster and louder... she likes loud music. I need something... something thrash-y or punk-y..."
The boy gave a few loud strums before breaking out what had to be the absolute worst noise Chapo had ever heard. It was like the boy was trying to make screamo with an acoustic guitar. This assumption was definitely helped when he started to howl at the top of his lungs. "AAAAAAAAIYAAAAH GONNAAAA CATCH YOU BAAAAYBAAAAAAAAH GONNAAAA CATCH YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Chapo closed her eyes tightly and slammed her hands over her ears, gritting her teeth angrily at the butchery of music. She was about to speak up about the spectacle when something else seemed to beat her to the punch.

"PIDGEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" The cry screamed through the air over the boy's playing and howling. A dark shadow shot out of the trees of the glade, soaring down at the boy and snatching the guitar out of his hands, practically destroying it.

"Ah!" The boy fell off of his stump, scrambling back on his rear end. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to wake you!" The bird pokemon didn't seem interested in hearing apologies, tossing the guitar away and snuffing out the campfire with a powerful flap of its wings.

Chapo immediately sprang into action, running into the glade with Roland. "Hey, hey! Get outta here, I'll take care of this!" Chapo said, helping the boy up and shooing him away to safety. The Pidgeotto seemed entirely unconcerned with this, now just looking for something to vent its anger on. It glared at Roland with an intense fury as the boy scrambled away and out of sight. Roland didn't budge as the bird glared at him. The two exchanged looks before the Pidgeotto screamed and took back to the air.

"It's coming again!" Chapo raised her arm over her eyes as the angry bird kicked up a storm with its flapping. Grass and dirt and dust flew about on the wind, stinging Chapo's skin as the sudden gale howled in her ears. The wind was so harsh that even Roland found it difficult to stay firmly on his feet, which was clearly just what Pidgeotto wanted. Letting out a piercing war cry, the bird of prey spread its wings wide and came crashing down towards the turtle, ramming harshly against it and raking at its shell and bushes with its talons before taking off and circling around for another attack. Roland howled in pain as his legs buckled under the assault. There was a heavy thud as the Grotle collapsed to the ground, hissing and groaning angrily from the attack. Roland snarled as his bushes glowed, the telltale sign of a Seed Bomb being prepared.

"That's the spirit, Roland!" Chapo said encouragingly. "Counterattack with a Seed Bomb now!" Complying, Grotle let out an angry cry as he fired the attack into the dark trees. There was a shadowy blur in the airspace where Pidgeotto should have been, and the screaming projectile sailed harmlessly through the air, striking ad tree branch and shattering it with an impressive but nonetheless ineffective explosion of shrapnel. Chapo recoiled in shock. Seed Bomb was supposed to be her trump card, her coup de grace. But how was it supposed to be so effective if they couldn't hit with it? Chapo tried to search for Pidgeotto in the darkened treetops, her eyes frantically darting back and forth for its distinctive figure. However, she couldn't see anything in the night. Screaming again, Pidgeotto suddenly swept in for another hit and run from the completely opposite direction that Chapo and Grotle were looking. "H-hey! Cheap shot!" Chapo shouted angrily, once again searching frantically for the elusive bird. Pidgeotto suddenly came down again, and again, and again. Each time Chapo and Roland desperately tried to find the bird, and each time they had failed to do so.

"Argh, how are we supposed to hit this thing if we can't see it!?" Pidgeotto was a demon of the night. It'd appear, attack, and then disappear, each time only briefly appearing as an angry, feathered blur before vanishing into air above, using the darkness, the blurring canopy of the trees and its own speed to keep itself from being found. Roland was no longer being knocked down by Pidgeotto's dive bombs, it was actually being knocked about. Chapo grit her teeth as she desperately racked her brain for a plan. If she didn't think of something fast, her trainer career may as well be done. The girl's eyes suddenly caught something in the air, a figure that shifted against the way the branches moved in the trees... It was Pidgeotto! "Roland! It's coming from behind! WITHDRAW!"

Grotle seemed to be confused, perhaps because Chapo was asking her to defend intsead of attack. However, the pokemon had no time to question orders, because Pidgeotto immediately went on another attack run. The attack struck true, but this time it hit a hardened shell and a braced opponent. Roland hissed again, but he didn't so much as budge under the bird of prey's attack. "Good! Stay withdrawn!" Chapo shouted in encouragement, her eyes flicking up into the sky as she grinned confidently. There it was. Silently gliding towards Roland's right. It attacked again, and then went full circle before striking again. Chapo couldn't believe she had figured it out. Pidgeotto's attacks were predictable because they came in a pattern. North, East, West, South, North, East, West, South, North, East, West, South... the attacks were certainly quick, and they definitely felt like they came from nowhere, but they always came from the same places. It just felt different because of how they'd turn about trying to find the blasted thing. Chapo wasn't sure, but with the way Roland seemed to start instinctively bracing himself for each attack, it seemed like he had figured out the ruse too. Pidgeotto was gliding around to attack Roland head on, it was time to land this bird.

"Roland! DON'T use Seed Bomb!" Chapo shouted. It felt strange to give such an order, but it was necessary. Seed Bomb was too innaccurate, it was too obvious. For all its power it left Roland way too open... this called for a simple, practical approach.

"TACKLE NOW!" Chapo shouted in time with Pidgeotto's rallying cry. The diving bird suddenly struck head on with the hard shell of a leaping tortoise, all of the bird's momentum shifted its focus from damaging Grotle to coming to a screeching, horrifically painful halt. Dazed and confused, the bird crashed to the ground. "Pin it and use Absorb!" Pidgeotto was still trying to figure out what it was doing on the ground when Roland's full weight came on top of it, a bizarre, tingling sensation sweeping over its body as its energy was drained and transferred to its attacker. Grotle's bushes glowed once again...

"Roland, no! Keep using Absorb! Keep it pinned!" Chapo said in admonishment. Roland looked a bit put out, but complied, slowly but surely draining the tired, struggling Pidgeotto of its strength. Chapo's hand gripped one of her Heal Balls tightly as she closed her eyes and sighed once for focus. "Okay, get off of it NOW!"

Pidgeotto immediately tried to take to the air as Roland hopped off of it, but instead of soaring free of the battle, it clumsily flapped about and practically jumped right into Chapo's thrown Heal Ball. There was a flash of light that illuminated the darkened glade before the ball fell to the ground, wiggling slowly and pathetically before going still. The girl let out a triumphant whoop as the ball gave the most wonderful "ping".

"We got it! We caught our first pokemon, Roland!" Chapo exchanged a celebratory whoop and hop with Roland before picking up the ball and looking around the empty glade. The threat was taken care of, so they should probably make sure that boy was okay. Now where was he?

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Back after long, unwanted, unforseen Hiatus... Nothing worth noting in signature as of yet... : <